Slender Star
by GrimGrave
Summary: Requested by mariofan48. Trapped in the woods of who knows where, the gang only knows that they have to find 8 mystical pages if they ever want to get back home. What horror stalks them in their search? Rated T for safety.


Disclaimer: GrimGrave does not own Lucky Star or its characters – they belong to Kagami Yoshimizu. Nor does he own Slenderman. GrimGrave doesn't make money out of writing fiction.

Requested by _mariofan48_

Slender Star

It was cold.

Frigidly cold. The wind's chill cut to the bone, as expected of the night. The constant moving around didn't help even the slightest to warm up the body and only seemed to spread the chill further instead.

The veil of black the night provided was thick and blinding, forcing one to only rely on the flashlight for sight in the – where were they again? A forest? – forest of leave-less trees. Twigs and leaves snapped and broke down underneath their shoes with each step, providing the only source of sound along with the group's heavy panting. Wherever they were, it was a god-forsaken place. Even the moon was covered in the blankets of the black clouds. Neither wished they were here to begin with.

Why were they even here in the first place? Neither of them knew. They only knew what they had to do to – why were they doing this again? They needed to find some things, what was it?

Pages. They needed to find pages. That's what it was. But for what? Was it their tickets to get out of this no man's land?

So here they were; stuck in who knows where, with no memory of how they got there and an uncertain gist of how to get out of there. Collecting paper. Collecting paper in a darkly covered forest with only the four of them, each with a flashlight and ton of anxiety.

Kagami let out a sigh in irritation, pointing her flashlight on Konata next to her. "I can't help but feel that this is your fault that we are here. Even if we still don't know just how we ended up in this forest…"

The blue-haired teen winced at the blinding light, but chuckled nonetheless. "No point with bickering over something that isn't even set in stone, right? Besides, how hard can it be? Eight pieces of paper, and we're home. That's… 2 pieces per person."

"Good to see that you at least know basic math…" Kagami muttered back. "Let's just find them already. I don't like this place… Wouldn't it be better if we spread out and meet back at… well, whatever we decide to have as a meeting point?"

"Nooo!" Kagami stumbled forward with a grunt as her twin tackled her with a hug. "I d-d-don't want to look around by myself! I-it's scary…"

"I… I too would prefer if we stayed together…" Miyuki added with a light smile, visible only when Konata flashed her light at her. "It's more likely we would get lost and away from each other if we spread out… One of us at least might stray too far…"

The light turned over to Kagami, whom still attempted to gently shake her twin off her. She squinted her eyes at the light. "Alright, I hear you. I guess it is better if we stick together in this forest… So where are we heading anyway?"

"No idea." Konata replied bluntly. "But we should eventually find something if we just keep walking in this direction. There isn't much to use for navigation anyway. Except my awesome tracking skills that I've gained from _Monster Hunter_, amongst others!"

"Yes of course, your skills in gaming will surely help out here in the middle of nowhere." Kagami replied sarcastically. "Then you must see on that invisible mini-map of yours where those pages are, right?"

"…Are you mocking me?"

"I would never…" Kagami said dryly. "So can we please get on with this? I rather not spend too much time here myself. Let's start by heading over this way for a change, okay?" The group complied, tightly following suite right next to their friend.

The forest seemed to go on for miles if one were to exaggerate; though ten minutes of just forest was close enough to the mark that the group, desperate to find the pages, started to observe the trees for nailed papers. A few faint sounds of wings swatting through the air overhead was heard, followed by a crow's lament.

"Oh? There's something over there!" Miyuki exclaimed. Following the light, the visibility it provided eventually ended up on a tattered brick wall not too far away; just pass a couple of trees and eventually the forested ground was replaced by mud and pebbles. It was a deforested meadow with a single, oddly designed building smack in the middle of it.

"A building?" Kagami said with a frown. "It looks rather abandoned to me."

"But there could be at least one page inside!" Konata replied cheerfully. "It's worth checking out right? I mean, at least it will be clearer to find a page there than search a limitless number of trees."

"Konata-san has a point; perhaps we should at least give it a quick search?" Miyuki said. Kagami simply replied and started to march forward, her sister still clinging onto her as Konata and Miyuki followed right behind them. The building reeked of a thick, musky scent the second they stepped inside, causing each inhale of breath to be highly unpleasant as they walked through the narrow corridor. The building itself wasn't large, but its twisted hallways and dead ends made it out to be a maze in a smaller scale.

"Well this didn't get us anywhere…" Kagami frowned. "There are just dead ends and different exits, with two chairs. One of which is knocked over."

"To be fair Kagami-san, we wouldn't have known for sure if had not looked." Miyuki replied. Her smile was forced; that much was clear. But Kagami wouldn't point it out in their current situation. Everyone was nervous, and the last thing they needed was for someone to bring them further dampen their spirits. So she smiled back with a nod, clear and simple.

"You're right. And it does protect us from the wind, if only a little. But we should get going soon enough so we can actually find those pages-"

"I found one!" The group turned to Konata who was jumping against the far right wall. "There's a page up there! I almost have it…"

"Sure you have. Allow me to give you a helping hand though." Kagami said smugly, grinning at her short friend whilst she reached up and plucked the paper off the wall. Konata pouted, prompting Kagami to stifle a fit of giggles as she waved the paper in front of her friend. "It was quicker that way."

"Whatever…" Konata replied. "But at least now we're making progress! Now there's only seven more to go!"

Kagami frowned. "Yeah, seven more to find in this ever expanding forest. And since we're not splitting up, it will take just as long as if it had been one person…"

"Oh don't be such a sour-puss Kagamin! We have one page already and that's better than nothing, right? We'll find the others-"

"I'm not a sour-puss! I'm merely stating facts!"

"You're _so_ being a sour-puss Kagamin! Up till just now you thought there wasn't even a page here, can't you show some positive spirit for once? Honestly…" Konata shook her head with a silly smile. "You're the worst party-member… If this was an RPG, you would be the character no one would want to play with…"

"Don't compare everything to a game! Seriously, do you even realize the predicament we're in?!"

Before Konata could voice her answer, (while wearing a hurtful expression) there was something that broke the eerie silence that had stalked them since whenever they got here; a sharp scream, coming just from outside the room, pierced through the air so suddenly and agonizing. Shocked, bewildered, and terrified the girls turned to the direction of the sound and headed towards the doorstep of the room to find… nothing.

The three of them found nothing outside the room; withered leaves laid across the hallway, but nothing out of the ordinary-

Wait, the three of them?

Kagami's eyes widened till they threatened to pop out of their sockets. She spun around to see only Konata and Miyuki behind her, equally worried as she was. An unpleasant sensation crawled up her spine. Her heart was beating faster in her horrific realisation.

"Where's Tsukasa…? T-Tsukasa! TSUKASA!" As she screamed to no avail, Konata and Miyuki also took notice of the missing Hiiragi sister with dread. "Tsukasa!"

"S-She was with us just a second ago!" Miyuki's voice was nearly that of a scream. "She w-was right next to us! I don't understand how she could've…"

Konata yelled out to the hallways. "Tsukasa! This isn't funny, okay?! Hey Tsukasa!" No reply came back. Amidst Kagami's light sobs and Miyuki's worried whimpers there was only the sound of leaves clattering against the floor in the wind.

"Tsukasa… What happened to you…?" Konata didn't hesitate to hug her friend, as tightly as she could; Kagami's body was shaking with the sobs. The tears were quickly wiped away by Miyuki, who offered only a slight smile as she did.

A sudden rasping sound startled the trio out of their comfort-zone. Something was scraping against the wall outside, clattering madly at the doorway that led back outside; the one that was not too far away from their room. Panicking, the girls involuntarily screamed as they ran out of the room; it is a human nature to seek out shelter when in danger, one such shelter might have been in the building one would think.

Yet that idea was thrown out the window when they left the room – their hearts stopped, and their blood froze in their veins as the exit on the opposite edge of the building was blocked off by what looked like a person. A tall person, presumably a man, who wore a suit and just stood there; yet the very sight of him caused the trio to scream louder, prompting them to run in the opposite direction into the forest.

"What was that?!" Konata screamed. "Just what was that person?!"

"I don't know, and I most certainly don't want to find out!" Kagami yelled back. "Just keep running!"

Neither of them dared to look back. Their blood's pumping was drumming in their ears as their adrenaline was on haywire. In their fright they had achieved tunnel vision, focusing only on the direction they ran in.

Miyuki, who was faltering behind, felt her breath slowly leave her; with each inhale came less and less oxygen to course through her lunges. Her legs started to ache and grow sore the more she run, and the distance between her and her friends kept expanding.

"W-wait you two…!" She breathed out shallowly. "W-wait for me!" Her voice was cracked with dread and shortage of breath, leaving her pleas to no avail. Miyuki tried to catch up, but her strength slowly left her till she collapsed onto the cold earth. A root or a rock, it was hard to tell what had caused her to fall since her glasses had landed elsewhere.

"Oh no…!" She fanatically trailed her hands around her, feeling the ground for her glasses; her relatively bad eyesight was only worse in the darkness. "Oh no… No… W-where are they…! G-Guys, help me!"

Twig-breaking footsteps suddenly emitted behind her. Miyuki panicked and ran her hands around rapidly till she found them; the touch of glass was unmistaken.

Far ahead, Kagami and Konata kept running until Miyuki's scream forced them to abruptly halt and spin around – seeing how they now were missing yet another friend, the now-duo could feel their hearts skipping several beats. Their flashlights provided no vision of the mystery-man, or anything about Miyuki's whereabouts. The darkness had claimed her.

"No! Not Yuki-chan!" Konata lamented loudly. "Kagamin, I'm scared!"

The fear was just as visible in Kagami's eyes. "J-Just… c-c-calm down… T-there's no way Tsukasa and Miyuki could've…. Could've… you know…"

Konata quickly wiped her eyes. "R-right… Huh?" She directed her flashlight to her right, with Kagami doing the same out of curiosity; another brick wall, but this time it wasn't a building; the brick walls was built in a cross formation it seemed, and upon further investigation they found-

"Another page!" Kagami exclaimed. "That leaves us with six left…"

"Some progress…" Konata sobbed quietly. "Kagamin… I'm really scared…" She felt a par of arms pull her into a hug. Kagami's body was against hers, with a slight height-difference, and kept her warm and soothed.

"Me too… B-but you'll see, we will get out of this… whatever it is. I'm sure Miyuki and Tsukasa has both found somewhere to hide. They're fine, I'm sure of it."

"Kagamin… You know, when you're like this… You're the cutest."

Kagami's face flared up with embarrassment. "W-what do you mean by- N-never mind! Let's j-just-"

"Kagamin, please! Hear me out! If… if the worst case scenario did happen, I… I just wanted you to know that I… Kagamin, for the longest time, I have-"

"RUN, KONATA!"

Taken aback, the blue-haired girl spun around. Cleverly hidden amidst the trees stood he, clad in his suit with a featureless face. And rapidly came towards them.

The girls screamed. They began to run, panicked and frightened in separate directions. By the time Kagami had taken notice, it was already too late; she wanted to yell at Konata "wrong way!" but her friend had already vanished in the darkness. Kagami didn't dare to look behind her, for her fear of the tall man prevented her. Merely minutes later she heard Konata scream, loudly and soul-piercingly.

"This can't be… This can't be happening… It can't be happening! Why were we even here?!" She kept running as quickly as possible. "I want to go home! I want to go home!"

She felt something trip her over. The cold, hard ground provided a rough landing and bruised her knees and arms. The pain stung, and lingered. Her flashlight was flickering; it would probably die soon. Despite it all, Kagami tried to get up on aching legs with what little strength she had left, picking up the flashlight as she did. She staggered forward – no destination in mind. Just forward, somewhere, anywhere – just far away from whatever that man was.

The light she had left provided enough visibility in front of her, when it wasn't flickering too much. It was silent around her. It was too silent, as a matter of fact. And it was unbearable.

Kagami felt like crying. She felt like screaming. But no tears or sound came; only a raspy cough tore out of her throat as she staggered onward, flashlight still flickering. Then she saw it; a page, nailed on the tree just in front of her. She walked over to it, feeling her legs become more wobbly as she got closer.

She held the flashlight up to the page, lightly gripping the edge of the parchment. She stared at the page, now feeling the tears finally bursting out of her eye-sockets as she kept reading the words silently, and footsteps closing in on her; they grow louder till she heard them stop right behind her.

_Can't run_

**:::::::**

Kagami screamed as she jolted upright, beads of sweat rolling down her face. It was bright around her; no trees, she wasn't even outside. There was furniture around her, and she was even partially covered by the futon atop the kotatsu, with everyone's eyes on her.

She stared wide-eyed at her friends, – they were here with her! – alive, unharmed and well. Miyuki appeared to have been reading a book before she looked over at Kagami, worried, while Konata and Tsukasa sat in front of the TV playing a videogame, merely confused.

Her heart pounded rapidly. "A… Dream..? Oh God…"

"Are you alright Kagami-san?" Miyuki inquired. "You fell asleep earlier and we didn't want to disturb you… But until just recently you tossed and turned quite a bit. Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yeah, a real nightmare alright…" Kagami replied. "Thank God I woke up when I did…" She fell back to the floor with a sigh of relief.

* * *

Can't say that horror is my forte, but one always need to have an open mind and try.


End file.
